Hundreds of young trees are to be virtually given away this coming Saturday in a bid to help regreen Grand Cayman.
Young trees and seedlings, mostly native varieties, will be priced between $2 and $4 at the Saturday morning sale being held at the Tennis Club on Anne Bonny Crescent, South Sound Road. It runs from 10 am to noon, rain or shine.
The trees have been grown by dozens of environmentally conscious individuals across the island, known collectively as the Shade Brigade.
‘So many trees were destroyed by Ivan,’ Eliza Harford, one of the group’s founders, explained in a press release.
‘That destruction meant a radical loss of shade and beauty, both of which are so important to our quality of life. So the Shade Brigade was formed to address the need for more trees.
‘I think we’ve had about 80 to 100 amateur gardeners cultivating young trees for this project since July. They’ve mostly been growing from seeds.’
She said Saturday’s sale is intended in particular for those Cayman residents who feel they cannot afford at this time, after all the extra costs associated with Ivan, to buy trees from a nursery or garden centre.
With another month left of the rainy season, this is not a bad time to plant, Mrs. Harford adds. ‘Most of our little trees now are somewhere between a few inches and a couple of feet in height, but if the species is fast growing, which they mainly are, and you give them a bit of water through the dry season, they’ll maybe be two or three feet high by this time next year, and probably starting to reach a decent height in three years’ time. A plopnut, for example, of which we have plenty, is a pretty tree that flowers year-round, and can reach 10 or 15 feet in a couple of years. It grows absolutely anywhere, and can be used as a screening hedge or a freestanding tree.’
The Shade Brigade expects to have somewhere between 500 and 1,000 trees for sale. The vast majority are either native, or commonly found in Cayman and well adapted to local conditions. Quite a few of them cannot be bought locally.
Among the varieties which will be on sale are: lancewood, mahoe, white buttonwood, poui (also known as whitewood), cordia (also known as broadleaf or Geiger), almond, guinep, poinciana, seagrape, cabbage tree, ficus, pandana, plopnut, African tulip, orange (citrus), pongam, barringtonia, wild calabash, headache bush, and smokewood.
In the interests of helping as many people as possible re-establish their gardens, sales will be limited to 10 young trees per person-family, or 20 seedlings, added Mrs. Harford.
Another important feature of replanting trees that have been part of the local environment for decades, if not centuries, is their role in sustaining local wildlife, she noted.
‘Cayman’s bird, bee and butterfly populations have always relied on the flowers and fruits of local trees. If we can replant what sustained those populations before Ivan, we will help re-establish and repair that part of our ecosystem. Then we can all have the pleasure of seeing those creatures thriving once more.’
All proceeds from the sale will go towards tree planting in Grand Cayman.
For more information, call Shade Brigade committee members Eliza Harford (947-3349) or Judy Bullmore (947-1916).
Related Videos
